Esther Rolle Trailers
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Esther Elizabeth Rolle (November 8, 1920 – November 17, 1998) was a Bahamian American actress. Rolle is best known for her role as Florida Evans, on the CBS television sitcom Maude, for two seasons (1972–1974), and its spin-off series Good Times, for five seasons (1974–77, 1978–79), for which Rolle was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1976.
Rolle is best known for her television role as Florida Evans, the character she played on two 1970s sitcoms. The character was introduced as Maude Findlay's housekeeper on Maude, and was spun off in the show's second season into Good Times, a show about Florida's family. Rolle was nominated in 1975 for the Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Golden Globe Award for her role in Good Times. Rolle was 19 years older than the actor (John Amos) who played her husband James Evans. The James Evans character was only added after Esther Rolle fought hard for a father figure and husband to be added to the show. Rolle had fought for the father character on the show, more relevant themes and scripts and was unhappy when the success of Jimmie Walker's character, J.J. Evans, took the show in a frivolous direction. John Amos agreed with Rolle about Walker's character and was fired from the show after the third season ended. Later on, in a stand-off with Good Times producer Norman Lear, Rolle also quit when her contract ended. Although the show continued without her for the fifth season, she returned for the show's final season. In 1979 she won an Emmy for her role in Summer of My German Soldier, a made-for-television movie.
Among her guest star roles was one on The Incredible Hulk in an episode entitled "Behind the Wheel" where she played a taxicab business owner. In the 1990s, Rolle was a surprise guest on RuPaul's VH-1 talk show. Her Maude co-star Bea Arthur was the guest, and Rolle was brought out to surprise Arthur. The two had not seen each other in years, Arthur said, and embraced warmly. Rolle also appeared in a series of psychic hotline TV commercials in the 1990s. "Tell them Esther sent you," was her trademark line.
Most Popular Esther Rolle Trailers
Total trailers found: 30
28 April 1979
Based on writer Maya Angelou's eloquent reminiscences of her days as a gifted youngster growing up in the South during the Depression years where she and her older brother were raised by their grandmother after the divorce of their parents.
17 February 1989
Police chief Xavier Quinn investigates the gruesome murder of Donald Pater, one of the wealthiest residents on a Caribbean island.
18 November 1971
Barney owns the last working farm in Manhattan. For various reasons, city officials have decided to close it down.
14 December 1990
In this sentimental holiday tale, a young boy is taken away from his loving, adoptive household when his new mom is killed in an auto accident and his traveling musician dad is deemed unfit to care for him, being on the road too much.
10 May 1995
Real stories of five women of the Old West....
05 December 1986
This documentary traces the deep-rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice.
13 November 1991
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist.
20 December 1962
Scout Finch, 6, and her older brother Jem live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama, spending much of their time with their friend Dill and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley.
13 December 1989
The story of an old Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and her relationship with her black chauffeur, Hoke.
09 January 1981
A maid who reads detective stories finds herself embroiled in a real-life mystery involving her dead boss and a mysterious statue he brought back from China.
06 October 1995
Soon-to-be-wed graduate student Finn Dodd develops cold feet when she suspects her fiancé is cheating on her.
20 December 1996
They used to run the country. Now they're running for their lives! Two on-the-lam former Presidents of the United States.
17 February 2005
Three college seniors who are thinking about nothing but graduation and going out with a bang from college, harshly discover that a culmination of four years of hard work can lead to a permanent road to perdition after they decide to experiment with the knockout "date rape" drug on a vulnerable, impressionable, and very attractive freshman girl.
06 January 1987
P.K. runs away from home because her step-father keeps on harassing her sexually and her mother is ignoring the problem.
01 January 1982
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is a 1982 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, directed by William Woodman and starring Alex Hyde-White as Romeo and Blanche Baker as Juliet.
21 February 1997
Spurred by a white woman's lie, vigilantes destroy a black Florida town and slay inhabitants in 1923.
30 October 1978
Patty Bergen is a teenager in a Jewish family living in the American South during World War II. Patty feels like an outcast even in her own family and is unable to understand why her father can't seem to love her.
13 July 1973
After federal agent Cleopatra Jones orders the burning of a Turkish poppy field, the notorious drug lord Mommy vows to destroy her.
25 June 1993
When Ruth Matthews's husband is killed in a fall at an archaeological dig, her daughter Sally handles her father's death in a very odd manner.
28 June 1967
Sylvia, a novice schoolteacher, is hired to teach English in a high school, but she’s met with an apathetic faculty, a delinquent student body and an administration that drowns its staff in paperwork.
16 December 1989
John Cooper is in a retirement home. There are strict rules for the residents, but he refuses to fall into passivity.
06 August 1969
The story, set in Kansas during the 1920's, covers less than a year in the life of a black teenager, and documents the veritable deluge of events which force him into sudden manhood.
27 December 1964
A proud black man and his school-teacher wife face discriminatory challenges in 1960s America.
17 October 1993
Journalism Major Paxton Andrews loses the man she loves in the Vietnam War. Always having followed the beat of a different drum, she decides to work out her grief by going to Vietnam and writing a column that will hopefully help those at home better understand the War.
01 February 1989
A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.
13 April 1973
As an African American family and friends gather in an apartment for a house party, two mischief-making devil-bats take human form in order to break up the party.
05 December 1993
When Sam Peek's beloved wife, Cora, dies, a white dog suddenly materializes as his new companion and confidant.
29 January 1992
From Amos 'n' Andy to Nat King Cole, from Roots to The Cosby Show, black people have played many roles on primetime television.
25 December 1998
A single mother plagued by alcohol and drug addictions is sent with her children from Chicago to her ancestral home in the Mississippi Delta, to live with her uncle and aunt for the summer.
02 November 1983
A teen from the city learns to fend for himself living with his grandmother in the rural South.
